1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fishing implements and accessories, and more particularly to a hand held fishing gaff having multiple positions of orientation of its fish hook or fish engaging portion.
2. Description of Related Art
Manually held fishing gaffs are well known. Such gaffs include an elongated handle for hand grasping at the hand grasping or gripping end thereof and having a rigid generally U-shaped fish hook extending longitudinally from the opposite or proximal end of the handle. However, such well known fish gaffs typically have an entirely straight handle which limits the ergonomic hand holding utility thereof in that the handle itself may easily twist and rotate within even the firmest hand grasp of a fisherman, thus making it difficult to maintain a desired orientation of the fish hook best suited for each particular situation of use.
The present invention provides two unique structural improvements to such conventional fish gaffs. The first improvement is with respect to the fish hook or fish engaging portion itself. This aspect of the invention provides multiple positional orientations of the fish hook so that the user of the fish hook may quickly selectively orient the direction of alignment of the fish hook to the handle of the gaff. This selective, quickly relockable reorientation of the fish hook itself is particularly beneficial, in combination with an arcuately or offset gripping or grasping portion of the handle as it extends away from the longitudinal axis of the main portion of the handle itself. This offset gripping portion of the handle allows the user to maintain rotational orientation of the handle in keeping with a particular selected orientational position of the fish hook so that the user may maintain the fish hook, for example, in a forwardly, rearwardly or sideward orientation for selected use thereof in gaffing a fish in water under a wide variety of circumstances and preferences.